Faces: Good Boys...When They're Asleep...: The Best Of Faces

Though assured something better than footnote status, Faces may never get its due as more than the band Rod Stewart happened to be in while making his best music as a solo artist. A new best-of compilation, Good Boys…When They're Asleep…: The Best Of Faces, might help put its career in better perspective. Formed in 1970 from the wreckage of Small Faces, Faces took what was left of that group and added Stewart and future Rolling Stone Ron Wood, both of whom had worked with Jeff Beck. Pub-music boogie rarely had better advocates than those in Faces and listening to this anthology, it becomes clear just how much of a group effort Faces' music was. Stewart dominates every song he sings—with that voice, how could he not—but he shares songwriting credit on most numbers, and some of the group's best material comes from other quarters altogether. Ronnie Lane gives the band its best tender moments in the Kinks-worthy "Debris" and "Ooh La La," used so evocatively in Rushmore. While not slack with ballads ("Love Lives Here," the "Maggie Mae"-like "Sweet Lady Mary"), Stewart seems most comfortable when Faces is at its most propulsive. "Three Button Hand Me Down" may be the best "Some Kind Of Wonderful" rip-off in existence, while "Had Me A Real Good Time" and the group's sole U.S. hit "Stay With Me" show just how powerful loud, sloppy rock can be. Sloppy, but still expert: With Wood, Lane, keyboardist Ian McLagan, and drummer Kenney Jones all in top form, sweaty, bluesy hard-rock as an end to itself has rarely sounded so strong. Their band, and Stewart's, deserves another look.